What is “Conquering COVID-19”? This is a small series designed to help incoming and current college students navigate university life in the era of COVID-19. This series consists of advice, freebies, tips, and tricks to use for the upcoming year from the GPSNeeded Blog, run by a rising sophomore student at Rice University, taking the same journey!
If there is one thing that pre-med students are known for, it is spending all four years of our college career becoming the perfect medical school applicant! I kid, I kid... well, not really! There are several components of the pre-medical process and several factors to consider for someone on the pre-medical track. This upcoming year looks different but there are still plenty of things to keep in mind and do as you build up your profile. I am getting ready to head into my sophomore year and decided to share some things I am keeping in mind heading into this year that I hope will be very useful to you as well!
Solidify Extracurriculars
A pre-medical student is looked at holistically when applying to medical school and it is always good to be involved in activities outside of taking courses. It is impossible to be involved in every club/organization at your school but having some consistent and unique extracurriculars that you are involved in can be very beneficial and even help you to meet other students/mentors to network with while in your college career. I personally recommend getting involved in some of your pre-health organizations and things that you find interesting that you can commit to! Outside of pre-health organizations, I am apart of my school's Black Student Association, Student Government, and Cheerleading! I also work on campus as well!
Try to gain some clinical exposure/ shadowing/ research experience
This looks entirely different this year! It is definitely going to be a while until most of us are stepping into hospitals and shadowing but this is not a year to give up! There are plenty of webinars, online volunteering, and other virtual opportunities to invest in that will give you that exposure and make you an application that stands out! A good resource to find some volunteer opportunities to get involved in can be found here! There is also a virtual shadowing opportunity you can look into here (credit to @thepremedtwins for helping me find this one)! Not all opportunities are lost and plenty of physicians have opportunities online so look out for them! This is the perfect time to network and try to get that exposure that you need! Do not give up!
Build a LinkedIn profile and start networking
Like said above, this season is going to have a lot of limited opportunities to really get to network with professionals in the healthcare field. I learned this recently but LinkedIn is actually a great way to get in contact with those in the field you want to work in or the schools you hope to apply to. It is easy to reach out to these individuals for any questions, advice, resources, etc. It is also a good place to start building up your experiences and skills to really start to build a presence on the platform!
Narrow down your major
Your specific major ultimately does not matter all that much when applying to medical school. Although it is true that what you major in doesn’t have to be specific to science or math, it is still important to decide on one and especially during this year. This makes it entirely easy to plan pre-medical requirements and future plans regarding taking the MCAT, applying, and attending medical school! Knowing what classes you have to take to satisfy both your pre-medical requirements and graduation requirements will definitely help you to be able to organize your courses easily.
Continue finishing up pre-medical requirements
For me, freshman year was the time for a lot of experimentation with classes and really trying to narrow down a major. Of course, the pre-med timeline does not look the same for everyone but it is really crucial to focus on those pre-medical requirements to be satisfied or at least almost fully complete by the time you are thinking of studying/taking the MCAT.
Solidify professional relationships for recommendations
This is a really strong tip that I have for you all. Recommendations are also a big part of your medical school application. When the time comes to ask for recommendations, you want to have recommendations from people who you had stronger relationships with so that they can really support you and write you a good letter! It is important to keep that in mind in all your professional relationships, not only in the sophomore year but in your entire college experience!
Happy pre-med prepping to you all! One final tip: Check out these webinars and the AMMC website for some more resources! Share some of your tips and don't be afraid to reach out!
Love Always,
Karen <3
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